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Earlier this month, writer Mike Costa began a 3-part crossover story that focused on some of Marvel’s premier heroes, the young X-Men of the past from All-New X-Men, Bruce Banner/Hulk from Indestructible Hulk and Otto Octavius/Spider-Manfrom Superior Spider-Man. This was a story that brought together a very informal team to deal with a very specific, and quite incidental threat, and thus far, the highlight of the crossover was in the interactions between the characters and the light-hearted charm that Mike brought.

Concluding in this week’s Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special #1, the crossover continues to highlight the fact that what Mike was trying to do here was all about the characters. These are guest issues by him since he’s not working on any of the three titles, and I think it creates a nice way of getting onboard with these characters since you don’t really need to know much about them, other than the broad general stuff, particularly in the case of Otto Octavius being the Superior Spider-Man.

The Hulk is a character who has been building up some some steam in the movie side of things for a good while now. There was the first movie with Eric Bana as Bruce Banner, in which Bana gave a fantastic performance that was let down by the script. Then there was the second movie with Edward Norton which had a decent script but a boring performance from the lead. And then was last year’s The Avengers with Mark Ruffalo and that had a fairly solid script AND some decent acting. Ultimately, its the movies where I’m most familiar with the character, outside of some animated appearances here and there.

I haven’t read a single Hulk comic to date unfortunately, and that is something that I’ve been meaning to rectify of late with the current ongoing in the Marvel NOW! relaunch from last year, written by Mark Waid and drawn by Walter Simonson. But, as is usual, I can’t seem to find the time. Which is where Mike Costa’s Special #1 comes in, which has a completely different story and is part of a trilogy of specials across three different titles, telling a connected story. The first installment was great, and the same can be said of this one too.